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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102400">An Unexpected Glimpse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aintfraidanoghosts/pseuds/Aintfraidanoghosts'>Aintfraidanoghosts</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Giant Hamsters, Hint of Thirteen/Rose, Mostly Tentoo/Rose, Pete’s World, Torchwood - Freeform, not really a kidfic but maybe if you squint, some f/f kissing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:01:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,280</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102400</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aintfraidanoghosts/pseuds/Aintfraidanoghosts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor has been thinking about Rose more and more since she regenerated into this body. The TARDIS makes an unexpected trip to help the Doctor with some closure.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Unexpected Glimpse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizAnn_5869/gifts">LizAnn_5869</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy (slightly late) birthday to the wonderful writer and friend, LizAnn_5869! I hope your day was wonderful and that this gives you a little extra celebration!</p>
<p>Caedmon is responsible for the awesome prompt that sparked this idea, and the best beta ever, TenRoseForeverandEver, worked her cute little butt off to make sure it wasn’t too late of a birthday fic! They are both rockstars!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Doctor should have realized that when you’ve been living on a telepathic, sentient time ship for several millennia, said ship might actually know you better than you know yourself. The TARDIS had proved this over and over again, always bringing the Doctor where she <i>needed</i> to be, even if she hadn’t realized it at the time.</p>
<p>Or even if she had realized it, and had simply denied it... vehemently.</p>
<p>She shouldn’t have been surprised. Ever since the first time she looked in the mirror at this new face, she’d been thinking about Rose more and more. The blonde hair, the dark roots, the winning smile… It was painfully obvious that <i>something</i> in her subconscious couldn’t let Rose go even a few thousand years later. </p>
<p>She had dropped the Fam off for a quick home visit, ostensibly for them to visit their own families, but really so that she could be alone with her thoughts. As she launched the TARDIS into the Vortex, she wondered for the umpteenth time what Rose might have thought of this new body. Her Eleventh was quite pretty, her Twelfth grumpy and serious, but there had been no doubt in her mind that Rose would have stayed with both. </p>
<p>But would Rose still have wanted the Doctor if they were constantly being mistaken for sisters?</p>
<p>Or, as Rose inevitably aged… mother and daughter?</p>
<p>The Doctor sighed. She’d made the best decision she could at the time. Her metacrisis twin had been able to give Rose the best of both worlds… a life with a Doctor who loved her completely, plus a proper, human existence. So of <i>course</i> they were happy. How could they <i>not</i> be?</p>
<p>But there was always that nagging tiny little fragment of doubt… Not for the first time, she wished she knew for sure: were they really, truly happy?</p>
<p>Suddenly, the TARDIS lurched so violently the Doctor tumbled from her place against the console and landed on the hard grating below. Sparks and smoke began to fly out of the console as the TARDIS vaulted back and forth, quite reminiscent of the time…</p>
<p>“No!” The Doctor scrambled to her feet and frantically worked at the console, tapping out commands on the monitor. “Can’t be! This is impossible!”</p>
<p>Just like the last time, the Time Vortex was gone.</p>
<p>Mere seconds later, the TARDIS crashed, sending the Doctor sprawling onto the floor once again. The lights flickered ominously as the Doctor grabbed the console and pulled herself up. Her eyes flew to the monitor: still functioning, and the lights had stopped flickering. She breathed out a sigh of relief. Power and life support still seemed to be operating normally too, and luckily only a few archived rooms had been jettisoned to conserve power.</p>
<p>Desperately eager to find out where they had landed, the Doctor grabbed her coat from the grating and was still pushing her arms into the sleeves when she threw open the door.</p>
<p>She registered several things in quick succession. First of all, loads of people were running and screaming. Never a good sign, running and screaming. Second of all, all the running seemed to be them trying to escape from what looked like a gigantic dwarf hamster, who really wasn’t doing much except uprooting some trees and munching on their leaves. It would have been quite adorable, if it hadn’t been for all the running and screaming.</p>
<p>Third of all, drifting lazily across the sky was… a zeppelin.</p>
<p>Her jaw dropped, her hearts picked up in panic, but with a healthy dash of excitement thrown into the mix. Before she could even think of what to do next, a familiar hand slipped into hers and suddenly, all was right with the world again.</p>
<p>The owner of the hand flashed her a familiar grin, and she felt her knees go weak.</p>
<p>“Run!”</p>
<p>******</p>
<p>The Doctor let Rose tug her along the street, dodging the screaming humans as she barked orders into what looked like a wrist communicator. The Doctor was floored, dizzy, and questioning her sanity. She <i>had</i> to be dreaming. Travel between parallel worlds was <i>impossible.</i></p>
<p>She should know, she’d tried enough times over the last thousand years.</p>
<p>Rose suddenly turned a corner and aimed a slim, silver device at the door of a nondescript building. The end glowed red and the door popped open. The Doctor followed her inside, positive that her mouth was still hanging open in shock.</p>
<p>Rose was here, in her presence, holding her hand. And she had a <i>sonic device</i>.</p>
<p>This absolutely <i>had to be</i> a dream.</p>
<p>Just to be sure, the Doctor made what she would probably realize much later was a <i>very</i> bad decision. She reached out and pinched Rose hard on the arm.</p>
<p>“Ouch!” she yelped, glancing over at the Doctor in shock. “What the hell was that for?”</p>
<p>“I wanted to see if I was dreaming.”</p>
<p>“Well, then you pinch yourself, yeah, not other people! Rude!”</p>
<p>She could have wept. It <i>wasn’t</i> a dream. Rose was <i>here</i>, within actual <i>hugging distance</i>. However, experience told her that attempting to hug Rose when she was looking at her like <i>that</i> was not a wise decision.</p>
<p>“Yeah, sorry,” the Doctor apologized, tucking her hands in her pockets to keep them to herself and doing her best to look sheepish. “Been called that a few times. What are we doing here, then, anyway?”</p>
<p>“We’re waiting for my…” Rose perked up at the sound of a buzzing from the other side of the door. “There he is now! Thank <i>God</i>!”</p>
<p>She was moving towards the door before it was even open. The Doctor gaped as her metacrisis twin pushed his way inside, catching Rose as she threw herself into his arms in relief.</p>
<p>Her hearts clenched watching them embrace. He let out a long puff of air and held her tight, tucking his face into her neck and inhaling deeply. Rose, in turn, had her legs wrapped securely around his waist as she clutched at his hair. She was murmuring something to him, something low enough that the Doctor couldn’t make it out, and then he nodded, his face moving out from Rose’s neck to survey the room.</p>
<p>His jaw dropped in surprise, and the Doctor felt a little telepathic spark flare to life in her brain.</p>
<p>
  <i>Oh, bollocks.</i>
</p>
<p>“It’s… <i>you</i>!” He let Rose slide to the floor but wrapped an arm around her waist and pinned her to his side as his eyes roamed over the Doctor in shock. “Blimey… I’m a <i>woman</i>!”</p>
<p>“Doctor…” Rose trailed off.</p>
<p>“Rose?” they both replied in unison before grimacing.</p>
<p>“Oh no! Too weird,” the Doctor said. “I don’t like that, not at <i>all</i>!”</p>
<p>“Hold on, hold on!” Rose moved out of her husband’s (judging by their matching wedding bands) embrace, slowly making her way over to where the Doctor was standing, her lovely hazel eyes wide with shock as they devoured the Doctor’s face. She was only about a foot away, now, and the Doctor <i>ached</i> to hold her in her arms. “It’s really you?”</p>
<p>“It’s really me, Rose.”</p>
<p>“Doctor?”</p>
<p>She beamed. “Hello!”</p>
<p>She expected Rose to throw herself into her arms. After all, judging by the subtle signs of aging on both of them, it had been several years in Rose’s timeline since they’d last seen each other. Wasn’t that what people did after a long absence? Hug?</p>
<p>What she wasn’t expecting was the resounding <i>slap</i> as Rose’s palm made contact with her cheek.</p>
<p>Her eyes widened in shock as she brought a hand up to her stinging flesh. “You slapped me!”</p>
<p>“You’re lucky that’s all I did!” Rose’s hands moved to her hips in a motion so familiar that the Doctor thought she might cry. “You’ve got some nerve, waltzing in after almost <i>ten years</i>. You left us! There, on that beach. You just decided for us! Just because you are the mighty Time Lord and you think you have the right to make other people’s choices for them, doesn’t mean you <i>can</i>! How <i>thick</i> can you be? You know what, don’t answer that. I married you; I know all too well how thick you can be!”</p>
<p>“Oi!” the other Doctor interjected.</p>
<p>“Oh, you’re one to talk!” Rose turned and directed her vitriol on her husband. “Why on Earth would you think a <i>shrink-ray</i> was appropriate to test on our daughter’s <i>hamster</i>?”</p>
<p>He reached up a hand to rub the back of his neck in discomfort, the Doctor getting a pang of nostalgia at seeing the familiar gesture. She’d always been rather partial to her Tenth regeneration, and he had certainly aged quite well. His hair was as manic as it had ever been, but the slight shadow of a beard was new and certainly was a good choice for that face.</p>
<p><i>Stop it</i>, she internally chastised. <i>No flirting with yourself.</i></p>
<p>“Hold up! You’ve…” the Doctor interrupted, her throat catching a bit. “You’ve got a daughter?”</p>
<p>Rose turned to her and her face instantly shifted from rather annoyed to absolutely <i>joyous</i>. The other Doctor’s face had split into a grin as well. “Yeah, we do. Sarah. She’s two.”</p>
<p>“And <i>brilliant</i>,” the other Doctor added. “Absolutely brilliant. Found a Verouvian puzzle cube in the archives of Torchwood; she works it out every time.”</p>
<p>“Really?” The Doctor was impressed. “You should see if they have a Crespellian playpen maze! Bet she’d breeze through that in a heartbeat!”</p>
<p>“Can we focus on the issue at hand, please?” Rose huffed out in irritation. “Doctor…”</p>
<p>“Yes?” they both answered in unison. </p>
<p>“That’s going to get old very fast,” she muttered.</p>
<p>“Here, give me the shrink-ray,” the Doctor said to her part-human counterpart. </p>
<p>“I don’t need <i>you</i>...”</p>
<p>Rose sighed and marched over to her husband, plucking the eccentric-looking device out of his blazer pocket and tossed it over to the Doctor. She grinned at Rose and immediately got to work.</p>
<p>******</p>
<p>The shrink-ray was a simple fix, but one that required a tiny bit of conductive putty not native to planet Earth that the Doctor luckily had inside her coat pocket. Catching up to the giant, but still skittish, hamster was proving more difficult. The three of them eventually had to triangulate a containment field around it while Torchwood agents stood at the ready to catch the poor little creature once it was back to normal size.</p>
<p>“Sarah will be devastated if something happens to Hammy,” Rose explained to the assembled team. “So do your best not to stomp on him please?”</p>
<p>In the end, the Doctor was the one who caught Hammy in the shrink-ray’s beam, and it was her part-human counterpart who managed to scoop him up to safety. She and Rose breathed out a sigh of relief when he produced a clear blue hamster ball from his pocket and tucked the normal-sized rodent securely inside the plastic sphere.</p>
<p>Once reports were assigned and agents dismissed, an awkward silence fell over the three who were left: a human woman, her part-human biological metacrisis husband, and a Time Lord. The Doctor didn’t <i>want</i> to leave yet, not without saying a proper goodbye this time and maybe learning a little more about Rose and the other Doctor’s life in the parallel universe, and maybe even meeting Sarah... But she didn’t know how to bring it up without sounding over-eager.</p>
<p>Just like old times, it was Rose who saved her.</p>
<p>“So… tea?”</p>
<p>******</p>
<p>The Doctor moved the TARDIS to their back garden while Rose and the other Doctor stopped off at the Tyler mansion to pick up Sarah, who was apparently being spoiled rotten by her grandparents and uncle Tony. It was barely an hour before she and Rose were sitting in the late-afternoon sunshine with cups of tea in front of them, watching Sarah inspect the flower garden for various insects, while the other Doctor left to return Hammy to his proper habitat.</p>
<p>“So…” Rose finally broke the silence, gesturing up and down the Doctor’s form. “Woman this time round, eh? And you sound like you’re from the North again!”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” the Doctor replied. “Well, lots of planets <i>do</i> have a north after all.” </p>
<p>Rose chuckled. “It’s like the two of you remember everything you’ve ever said to me. ‘S a little weird.”</p>
<p>“Big old Time Lord brains, you’d be amazed at what we keep up there.” She rapped the side of her head, offering Rose the megawatt grin she was famous for. “So… what d’you think?”</p>
<p>Rose grinned back. “Looks a bit familiar, you know. But… ‘s definitely… <i>different</i>.”</p>
<p>“Good different or bad different?”</p>
<p>“Just… different.”</p>
<p>The Doctor reached over and covered Rose’s hand with hers. “I am sorry, you know. For leaving without saying goodbye. But I <i>couldn’t</i>. If I’d stayed any longer…” She trailed off.</p>
<p>“What, Doctor?”</p>
<p>Their eyes locked, speaking the volumes that their words never could. “I wouldn’t have been able to let you go.”</p>
<p>Rose’s eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, but she nodded and laced their fingers together, giving the Doctor’s hand a small squeeze that felt better than anything had in the last thousand years.</p>
<p>“Are you happy?”</p>
<p>Rose’s face lit up, her smile luminous. “Yeah. We’re… <i>so</i> happy.”</p>
<p>The other Doctor returned then, raising an eyebrow at their joined hands, but opting not to comment. Instead, he took a seat next to Rose and wrapped an arm over her shoulders, dropping a kiss onto her hair. </p>
<p>“How’s Hammy?” the Doctor asked, taking a sip from her mug.</p>
<p>“Safe as houses,” he replied. “And no one is the wiser.” He tilted his head a bit towards the garden, where the precocious ginger toddler had moved her magnifying glass to the soil.</p>
<p>“She’s beautiful,” the Doctor told them. “You know, she looks a bit…”</p>
<p>“Like Donna,” the other Doctor finished, a far-away look in his eyes, suddenly showing every one of his nine hundred years. “Yeah, we know. She came by the ginger hair honestly at least. No regeneration required.”</p>
<p>“Still haven’t been,” the Doctor chuckled.</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah?” Rose teased. “So, how many different hair colors since this one, then?”</p>
<p>The Doctor laughed and they chatted until the air grew cool and Sarah grew sleepy. Rose excused herself to get the grumbling toddler ready for bed. She left the Doctor with a quick hug and an invitation to her laboratory (once her Dad let her build it), and soon the Doctor was left alone with her part-human counterpart.</p>
<p>They didn’t speak for several minutes, simply watching the sky shift from sunset into night, but the unstoppable gob the Doctor was famous for in that body couldn’t be silenced for long.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t easy, you know.”</p>
<p>The Doctor glanced up. “Hmm?”</p>
<p>“All of this?” He gestured around him. “The house? The life? Blimey, even the <i>wedding</i> wasn’t easy. A Jackie Tyler event ruined by invading Galluptilurians? Five years later and we still haven’t heard the end of it.” He heaved in a sigh before leaning back in his chair and scrubbing his hands over his face. “Rose didn’t think I would stick around, because I wasn’t given the choice. I didn’t think she could ever look at me without seeing <i>you</i>. But we fought through it, and it’s…” He floundered a bit for the right word. </p>
<p>“Brilliant?”</p>
<p>He gave her a small, quiet smile, the one that was so familiar, the one she had so long ago reserved for one particular pink-and-yellow human. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Completely brilliant.”</p>
<p>They sat once again in silence, although this time it felt distinctly more companionable. Rose returned several minutes later and the two shared stories about her family, her now teenaged brother, and their jobs at Torchwood. Night had fallen and the moon was high in the sky when the TARDIS sent a slightly urgent telepathic warning.</p>
<p>It was time to go.</p>
<p>Both Rose and her Doctor looked disappointed, but nodded glumly when the Doctor stood up. They crossed the yard to the TARDIS, the Doctor moving to unlock the doors before turning to the couple with a grin.</p>
<p>“You wanna come in?”</p>
<p>Their eyes both went wide with excitement before turning more solemn. “Nah,” Rose spoke first. “Can’t promise we’d ever leave.”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t have to,” the Doctor told them softly. “You could go grab that daughter of yours and come back with me. The old team, back together? Could even pick up Mickey, just for old time’s sake, eh?”</p>
<p>Rose and her Doctor shared a look before shaking their heads. “Thanks for the offer,” he said. “But we’re gonna stay put.”</p>
<p>The Doctor smiled. “Thought as much.” She reached out a hand and grasped onto the other Doctor’s, shaking it fondly. “It was good to see you, you know. By the way, I like the scruff.”</p>
<p>The other Doctor preened a bit, reaching up to stroke the dark stubble as the Doctor turned to Rose. She let out a shaky exhale and held open her arms invitingly, but when Rose stepped forward, she offered that saucy grin that made her look ten years younger, took the Doctor’s face in her hands, and pressed her mouth to hers.</p>
<p><i>Oh</i>, the Doctor thought as her own hands drifted instinctively to Rose’s waist. <i>That’s...</i></p>
<p>Rose’s mouth moving ever-so-gently against hers caused her magnificent brain to spark out. Rose had the Doctor’s lower lip captured between hers, just toeing the line from platonic into something <i>more</i>, but never fully crossing over. Still, the Doctor cherished the contact, her thumbs stroking gently over Rose’s rib cage and her hearts soaring when Rose smiled into the kiss.</p>
<p>They came apart slowly, Rose bringing her forehead to rest against the Doctor’s. They were both breathing slightly faster than normal, and Rose still had her hands on either side of the Doctor’s face. She drew in a breath and placed another, gentle kiss to the tip of the Doctor’s nose.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” she murmured. </p>
<p>“Whatever for?”</p>
<p>Rose smiled. “Thank you for… <i>him</i>, for <i>us</i>... for the chance at this life.” She pulled back and brushed a lock of blonde hair off the Doctor’s forehead. “I think I’m going to have to change my original assessment. <i>Definitely</i> good-different.”</p>
<p>The Doctor chuckled and pressed a kiss to Rose’s forehead before she let go of her waist and let her step back to her husband, who was staring at them dumbly, his mouth slightly open, and a glazed look in his eyes.</p>
<p>Rose glanced up at him and shook her head with a fond smile. “Bloody human hormones.”</p>
<p>The Doctor felt the corners of her lips tug up even further. “Good bye, Rose. Good bye, Doctor. Have…” She had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could continue speaking. “Have a <i>fantastic</i> life.”</p>
<p>They both smiled as she stepped into the TARDIS, closing the doors behind her. Then, with a sigh, she stepped to the console and set the coordinates.</p>
<p><i>God</i>, how could it still hurt <i>this</i> much, leaving her behind? </p>
<p>She flipped the dematerialization lever before leaning against one of the tall pillars, sliding down to the floor and willing herself not to cry. She had great friends to go back to, friends that had been through Hell and still remained steadfastly by her side. She was lucky, and she knew it.</p>
<p>Still, it felt like her hearts were breaking all over again, wounds once scarred over, were open and raw once more.</p>
<p>The only balm that soothed the pain was that the Doctor <i>knew</i>, with 100% certainty, that Rose was happy. She’d seen her living the fantastic life that she’d always wanted for her, a life full of joy and love and even a touch of adventure.</p>
<p>It was a better gift than she could have ever hoped for.</p>
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